Further Pronunciation Guidelines

1. Sometimes, Korean pronounced syllables follow Korean written syllables closely.

䞮⋮ hana (CV-CV) 㠊Ⲏ┞ mni (V-CV-CV) 㺓ⶎ changmun (CVC-CVC)

2. At other times, the written structure tries to preserve consistency where, in pronunciation,
changes occur. Thus, the final consonant of a preceding syllable is pronounced as the initial
consonant sound of the following syllable when the following syllable begins with a vowel.

ⲏ㠊㣪 CVC-V-V in writing, CV-CV-V m-g-yo in pronunciation (cf. ⹱㞚㣪, ㌆㧊⋮, 㧞㠊)

3. If the syllable has two different final consonants before a vowel-initial syllable, then the first
of these closes the first phonetic syllable, and the second begins the following phonetic syllable.

㧓㠊㣪 VCC-V-V in writing, VC-CV-V ily-g-yo in pronunciation (cf. 㩠㠊㣪)

4.1 Automatic voicing of plain ථ, ඣ, ප, ඝ

The normally voiceless sounds shown by the single ථ, ඣ, ප, ඝ [p, t, c, k] (which have a light
puff of local air when they are at the beginning of a word) are voiced between voiced sounds (i.e.,
vowels, y, w, m, n, ng, l) so that they will sound like b, d, dz, g.

1. 㞚⻚㰖 a-b-dzi father 2. ╁㞚㣪 ta-da-yo closes it

3. 㞶₆ æ-gi baby 4. ╊⺆ tam-bæ cigarettes
5. 㞞☯ an-dong (name of a city) 6. 㭧ῃ cung-guk China
7. Ṟ゚ kaly-bi ribs 8. 㞞㭒 an-dzu food to go
with alcohol
4.2 Non-release of final consonants

Korean never allows its speakers to release a consonant at the end of a syllable unless they have
to. Korean speakers have to release a consonant at the end of a syllable when the word is
followed by (1) a particle or ending that begins with a vowel, or (2) by the special verb –㧊㠦㣪
it is….

In the case of final unreleased p, t, k, it is often difficult for English speakers to hear the
consonant – it sounds as though the Koreans swallow their consonants.

Final /-P/ Final /-K/ Final /-T/ (usually from /න/)

ΐ hoof ῃ soup ῕ exorcism
὇ pus 㡻 jade 㢍 garment
㧛 mouth ⳿ throat ⴑ pond; nail

4.3 The Gang of Seven: ඥ ත ච ඳ ථ ඣ ඝ

The only consonants that can be pronounced at the end of a syllable in Korean are the following
seven: ඥ ත ච ඳ [l, m, n, ng] and ථ ඣ ඝ [p, t, k] (but remember: Korean doesn’t allow you
to release them unless you have to).

When the basic form of a word ends in something else other than these seven consonants, the
“something else” must be reduced to one of these seven consonants, unless the word is followed
by (1) a particle or ending that begins with a vowel, or (2) by the special verb –㧊㠦㣪 it is….

㞴㠦 aphe in front 㞴 [㞫] ap front

Ṩ㦖 kapsn as for price Ṩ [ṧ] kap price
⹬㠦 pakke outside ⹬ [⹫] pak outside
╃㧊㠦㣪 talygieyo it’s a chicken ╃ [┻] tak chicken
⿖㠢㧊㠦㣪 pukhieyo it’s a kitchen ⿖㠢 [⿖㠋] puk kitchen
㢍㧊㠦㣪 oshieyo it’s a garment 㢍 [㢍] ot garment
⺃㠦 pathe in the field ⺃ [⹱] pat field
⌄㠦 nadze in the daytime ⌄ [⋵] nat daytime
↙㧊㠦㣪 kkochieyo it’s a flower ↙ [↉] kkot flower

The reduction rules are as follows.

Original sounds Reduce to

ථ, ඹ, ද Æ ථ (or to m; see section 4.5)
ඝ, භ, ඞ Æ ඝ (or to ng; see section 4.5)
ඣ, ම, ප, බ, න, ඲, ය Æ ඣ (or to n; see section 4.5)

Note how many different consonant sounds an unreleased t can disguise. In particular, note that
an unreleased s gets pronounced as t. In fact, most unreleased t-sounds you will hear in Korean
are really a final s in disguise.

4.4 Other gang of seven situations

The final-reduced forms in p, t, k and l, m, n, ng are used not only when the word is before a
pause, but also before words beginning with consonants and even before words beginning with
vowels, provided the following word is not a particle (e.g., the subject particle 㧊 or the locative
particle 㠦) or the special verb –㧊㠦㣪 it is….

╃ἶ₆Æ ┻ἶ₆ [┺ↂ₆] takkogi chicken (as meat)

⺃☚ Æ ⹱☚ [⹪⡦] patto the field too
⺃㞞 Æ ⹱㞞 [⹪┾] padan inside the field
㢍㞞 Æ ot + an [㡺┾] odan garment lining
㢍☚ Æ ot + to [㡺⡦] otto the garment too

4.5 Nasal Assimilation

When p, t, k precede m or n (or l pronounced as n due to the rule in section 4.6 below), they (that
is, p, t, k) are pronounced as m, n, ng, respectively.

Remember that in Korean, p, t, k cannot be released in this position. When you have an
unreleased p before a nasal sound like m or n and want to pronounce the next syllable, the p must
be nasalized to m. The same nasalization occurs for unreleased t turning into n and unreleased k
turning into ng.

䞿┞┺ [䞾┞┺] hamnida does it [Formal style]

╁⓪┺ [┾⓪┺] tannnda closes it [Plain style]
ⲏ⓪┺ [ⲣ⓪┺] mngnnda eats it [Plain style]
㕃⮯ [㕂Ⓥ] shimnyuk sixteen
☛Ⱃ Æ ☛┯ Æ [☯┯] tongnip independence
䞿Ⰲ Æ 䞿┞ Æ [䞾┞] hamni rationality, reason

Note that this rule also applies to any t which has been reduced from th, ch, c, s, ss, or even h:

⺃Ⱒ Æ [⹱Ⱒ] Æ [⹮Ⱒ] panman the field only

㒅 + Ⱒ Æ [㑵Ⱒ] Æ [㑲Ⱒ] sunman the charcoal only
⌄ + Ⱒ Æ [⋵Ⱒ] Æ [⋲Ⱒ] nanman daytime only
⻭- + -⍺ Æ [⻡⍺] Æ [⻞⍺] pnne he’s taking it off!
㧞㠞- + -⍺ Æ [㧞㠑⍺] Æ [㧊㗂⍺] issnne she had it!

The case of h changing to (t and then) n like this is an unusual one, and we will alert you to it
again when you learn about verbs that end in final h.

⍹- + -⍺ Æ [⍥⍺] Æ [⍢⍺] nnne they’re inserting it!

4.6 Peculiarities of the Korean ඥ

1. When n is next to l (n.l or l.n, where the period represents a syllable break) a double ll is
pronounced.

㧒⎚ [㧒⩾] illyn one year

㔶⧒ [㔺⧒] shilla Silla (ancient Korean state)

2. When preceded by a consonant other than l or n, the l is pronounced as n.

㕂Ⰲ [㕂┞] shimni psychology

㌗⮮ [㌗Ⓤ] sangnyu upper reaches of a river

3. When followed by t, c, or s in words borrowed from Chinese, the l has the effect of doubling
these to tt, cc, and ss, respectively.
㻶☚ [㻶⡦] chltto railway
ἆ㩫 [ἆ㲷] kylccng decision
㍺㌂ [㍺㕎] slssa diarrhea

Because you have no way of telling which words are originally from Chinese and which are not,
and because the Korean writing system ignores these differences between spelling and actual
pronunciation, we will alert you to any such pronunciation details (by rewriting the
pronunciation in 䞲⁖ in square brackets) when you first learn new words in the vocabulary lists
at the beginning of each lesson.

4.7 Automatic Doubling

If the final sound of the preceding syllable is p, t, or k, the single voiceless consonants p, t, c, k, s
ථ, ඣ, ප, ඝ, න are automatically doubled in pronunciation so they sound like pp, tt, cc, kk, ss
ද, ඤ, ඵ, ඞ, ඲.

㟓⹿ [㟓ニ] yakppang drugstore

㧧┺ [㧧➆] caktta is little [Plain style]
ⲏ㧦 [ⲏ㰲] mkcca let’s eat [Plain style]
▻┺ [▻➆] tptta is hot [Plain style]
㧛㧦 [㧛㰲] ipcca let’s wear it [Plain style]
㕃㌒ [㕃㕞] shipssam thirteen

4.8 Leap-frogging ය h

The Korean ය h can leap over a following plain ථ, ඣ, ප, ඝ to yield a corresponding aspirated
sound in pronunciation (ඹ, ම, බ, භ). In other words, the aspirated consonants ඹ, ම, බ, භ
can be considered as equivalent to combination of ථ + ය (or ය + ථ), ඣ + ය (or ය + ඣ), ප
+ ය (or ය + ප), ඝ + ය (or ය + ඝ), respectively. Here are some examples.

ය + ඝ Æ භ: 㫡- + -ἶ Æ 㫡ἶ, pronounced 㫆䆪 is good, and…

ය + ඣ Æ ම: 㫡- + -┺ Æ 㫡┺, pronounced 㫆䌖 is good

4.9 Pronunciation of ම before i

The Korean ම (aspirated th) is palatalized to බ when it occurs at the end of a morpheme or
word and is followed by 㧊.

ṯ㧊 together is pronounced Ṗ䂮
⺃ field + 㧊 (subject marker) is pronounced ⹪䂮

4.10 Long and Short Vowels

Many Koreans distinguish words by pronouncing a vowel as long or short: 㧒 il one, 㧒 il (with
a long vowel) affair, work. But even for those speakers, vowel length is often suppressed,
especially when not at the beginning of a phrase, so that you will often hear short vowels in
words that have basically long vowels.

Modern Korean spelling does not indicate the long vowels, and we do not show them in the body
of this textbook. But you should at least be aware of this contrast. Here are some examples.

Short Vowels Long Vowels

⹺ evening ⹺ chestnut
Ὴ oyster Ὴ cave
Ⱖ horse Ⱖ words, speech
⑞ eye ⑞ snow

In the case of long and short 㠊, many speakers pronounce the long 㠊 with the tongue in a
considerably higher position than it is in for the short 㠊, as something resembling English uh in
uh-oh. Many speakers hollow the back of the tongue to make the short 㠊 so that it sounds
rounded like the vowel sound that many people use in English saw, song, dawn.

Short Vowels Long Vowels

ỆⰂ ˈkawrie” street ỆⰂ “kuhri” distance
㡆₆ “yawn’gi” postponement 㡆₆ ˈyuhn’gi” performance

4.11 The Names of the Korean Letters

The 䞲⁖ vowel signs do not have special names of their own. Instead, they are called by the
sounds they represent. For example, 㢖 is called “wa”. Each 䞲⁖ consonant sign, however, has
its own name based on the ingenious mnemonic device of beginning and ending the name with
the consonant letter in question.

The tense, or ‘doubled’ consonants, have the same name as the corresponding plain series
consonant, preceded by 㕣 double.

Letter Name Pronunciation ථ ゚㦣 pip

ඝ ₆㡃 kiyk ද 㕣゚㦣 ssangpip
ඞ 㕣₆㡃 ssanggiyk ඹ 䞒㦬 phip
භ 䋺㦪 khik න 㔲㢍 shiot
ච ┞㦖 nin ඲ 㕣㔲㢍 ssangshiot
ඣ ❪⁕ tigt ඳ 㧊㦧 ing
ඤ 㕣❪⁕ ssangtigt ප 㰖㦨 cit
ම 䕆㦫 thit ඵ 㕣㰖㦨 ssangcit
ඥ Ⰲ㦚 ril බ 䂮㦩 chit
ත ⹎㦢 mim ය 䧞㦭 hit
Pronunciation Exercises

Exercise 1: Voicing Practice

1. Ṗ⹿ 2. 㞞㭒 3. 㰖☚ 4. ⹿⻫ 5. Ṧ㧦 6. Ⱒ⚦

7. ⚦⿖ 8. Ὃ㧻 9. ⳾㧦 10. ῂ₆ 11. ῆ╖ 12. 㞚₆

13. ╊⺆ 14. Ὃ₆ 15. ῂ⚦ 16. 㑮㩲゚

Exercise 2: Non-release of Final Consonants

1. ṗ 2. Ⲗ 3. 㰬 4. ⋲ 5. Ṭ 6. ㎡

7. 䂿 8. 㰯 9. ₠ 10. 䌂 11. 䌧 12. ⼥

13. 㧧 14. ⋵ 15. ║ 16. ⍻ 17. ⎮ 18. 䃷

19. ◄ 20. ㍺ 21. Ⱕ 22. ㌗ 23. ⹻ 24. キ

Exercise 3: Nasal Assimilation Practice

1. 䞿┞┺ 2. 䞲ῃⰦ 3. ╁⓪┺ 4. 㽞❇䞯ᾦ 5. ⲏ⓪┺ 6. ☛Ⱃ

7. ⹻ⰱ 8. ☛Ⱃⶎ 9. 㞴ⶎ 10. 㞫⬿ṫ 11. 㑯⎖ 12. 㕃Ⰲ

13. ⴑ⋲㧊 14. ㌓Ⱒ 15. 㧧ⶎ 16. ⿖㠢ⶎ 17. ⿯⓪┺ 18. ↙Ⱒ

19. グⰢ 20. 㡱⋶ 21. 㢍Ⱒ 22. 㺔⍺

Exercise 4: Cluster Reinforcement Practice

1. 㧷㰖 2. ⳿㏢Ⰲ 3. 㕃㧦Ṗ 4. 㡓㍲ 5. 㻶☚ 6. ╋㧻

7. 㔳╏ 8. ⏨ἶ 9. 䞯ᾦ 10. ⹕㧦 11. 䞯㌳ 12. ọ㧦

13. 㡃㌂ 14. ῃ⹿ 15. ῃ㑮 16. ῃ゚ 17. ㍺㌂ 18. ἆ㩫